The Little Things
by Personality Test
Summary: A series of drabbles and one-shots, spanning time and worlds. Chapter 2. Pierre Row. Family. It was all for his family.
1. Capricorn

_"You know what I don't get?" Takane muttered sleepily. They were both staying late for supplementary classes – Kenjirou had left muttering something about a laboratory, and there were just her and Haruka, as always._

_"Hmm?" He replied absent-mindedly. Haruka was just as sleepy as she was. _

_"Constellations." Takane pointed at the glittering stars above. "Hercules, Orion, Andromeda, Zoe, all that Greek stuff. They're just dots that some guy drew a line on paper to make a pattern."_

_"Huh…" Haruka contemplated this for a moment, tracing the pattern of Orion on his sketchbook. "They don't really resemble the real thing, don't they?"_

_"They don't resemble anything," she snorted. "People just think they do."_

_"Is that so?" his voice was lighter, drifting off into hushed whispers. "But the dots are still there, aren't they? Someone just has to connect them. The shape doesn't really matter. We just need the shape to remind us of those dots…"_

_Haruka's soft voice slowly petered off, and soon enough Takane could only hear his evened breathing. It was just like him to fall asleep mid-sentence…_

_"Connect the dots, huh…?"_

The dots were there, like stars on a night sky. She could see the lines, the constellations glaring back at her. To her, the memories were fresh, as sharp as painful as ever. To him, they were nothing but fragments, like stars. They were there; they were supposed to make a pattern, but he simply couldn't connect those dots. He couldn't remember, and it broke Ene's heart.

One day…he would remember, one day. The dots were there, after all. He would learn to connect them. Konoha would finally, finally remember. From the bottom of her heart, Ene believed he would.

And so…

"Hi there!" She took a deep breath and grinned at his stunned expression. "Nice to meet you! Please take care of me and Master from now on!"

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><p>AN: What can I say? I'm bored. And I want attention. Yeah, that's how you get me to do anything. This will be a drabble series with an update rate of...probably one every few months. Unless people tell me they really want me to update *wiggles eyebrows* yeah, I'm kinda shameless that way xD I'll leave it as completed, though, just in case I get bored again and decide this is good enough as it is.

This first one is dedicated to my trusted confidante and one of my greatest friend here on FFN, SeraSearaSpin. Thank you for being my pillar of support all this time, and I hope this little drabble here either made you cry or put a smile on your face!


	2. Pierre Row

Chapter 2: Pierre Row

Word Count: 1,103

Genre: Angst

Characters: Kano S.

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_One, two, three…_

Take a deep breath. That's right. Breathe in. Breathe out.

There's nothing to fear. Nothing. To. Fear. Dad was still Dad. The snake is only an alternate personality that took over Dad's body at night. Maybe if he explains everything, Dad will understand. Maybe they can restrain him at night so that that poisonous snake won't be able to break free. That's problem solved – except it isn't. No matter what they do, Ayano-nee won't come back from that world.

Then…what's the point?

_Your family, stupid._ A gruff voice that sounds like Kido's scolds him. _Hold on to it. Claw at it with everything you've got. Just one piece is okay. Come on. Don't give up. _

S-She's right. Family. His family. Kido, Seto, Dad…especially Dad. He doesn't know about that existence in his head. He isn't aware that he destroyed this family because of that one impossible wish. He doesn't know he had a hand in his daughter's death.

Except he does. _He does._

* * *

><p><em>Four, five, six…<em>

"I'm not hungry."

"Eeh? I'm fine, I'm completely fine!"

"I was just going out for a stroll, that's all!"

Lies. Lies. Lies.

It's an addiction. And he's the addict trying to get a fix.

"Hey, Kano, what do you want for dinner?" Kido asks, tying her long hair up and retrieving a knife from the cupboard, and for a second, _just a second_, the brilliant glint from that metal knife caught his eyes and –

"Hmm? Ah, carrots sound nice, how about it~?" He grins. She nods and turns back to the kitchen counter, and Kano's smile fades into a scowl.

He hates carrots.

* * *

><p><em>Seven, eight – was that seven?<em>

Pinching his own arms doesn't work anymore.

It's like viruses adapting to antibiotics. His arms have gone so numb that he can't feel much of them anymore, and no matter how long his fingernails have grown he can't feel anything when they dig in his pale skin.

Pale. He is becoming much too thin and pale, like an anemic kid. Maybe even like a corpse, like Takane and Haruka's bodies – well, at least _they_ got off lucky in those cryotanks. He wonders if Kido and Seto have noticed. He wondered if said girl is here, _right here_, watching those painfully purplish bruises and cuts on his pale arms and crying silently.

Paranoia strikes and Kano walks around, blindly slashing the air in front of him and feeling a little bit stupid. If Kido were here, would she laugh at him? If Seto was just outside the door listening to his thoughts, would he break into the room when Kano is asleep and throw away his knives and paperweights and snow globes?

Kano locks his door that night and barricades it with a chair, shrouding himself with a blanket. He is safe. They won't come in. They can't come in. It's all right. It's –

He stays up all night, eyes trained at the door that never opened.

* * *

><p><em>Eight, nine, ten…<em>

He should tell them.

They deserve to know. They are family. They are as much involved in this as he is.

But then, what should he tell them?_ Dad has a split personality inside him. He wants to work with that evil snake. He wants to sacrifice us to bring back Mom._

His first lie, _everything is fine_, would shatter. Then follows the second lie, _I don't know why Ayano-nee died_. The third lie, _I would never betray my family_, crushed to pieces.

Too many. Too many. Too many lies. He's been weaving webs of lies with himself at the center like a deluded spider, and now his arms and legs are trapped in the web and he can't get out. He isn't sure he wants to. He made this web. He worked so hard on this, this masterpiece, this work of a lifetime.

_Break the web._ That voice, Kido's voice, one he likes to think is the voice of his conscience, urgently whispers. _You can do this. Come on, just cut the string. One 'snip', and you're done. You're free._

That is just like her, to believe in a liar. She never learns. Neither does he. They could all take a leaf out of Seto's book, Kano thinks a little bitterly. Seto, considering what he went through, didn't turn out patched-up and destructive and everything that comes with the package.

"H-Hey, Kido…" He prompts a little awkwardly. The leader, who has been lounging on the couch channel-surfing, turns her head around with a quizzical expression.

"Yeah, what is it?"

'_Dad has a split personality inside him and he wants to work with –'_ He yells and yells those rehearsed words, but she can't hear any. "I was wondering what's for dinner."

"Carrots." She says – for a second, her eyes linger on his face and narrow into slits, but he convinces himself it's nothing but a trick of the light – and turns her attention back to the TV.

'_Please, someone, save me –_' He lets out a laugh that sounds more like a choked sob. "…Yeah. That sounds wonderful."

* * *

><p><em>And one, and a two, and a three…<em>

Take a deep breath. And another one. Yes, that's it. Another one.

The brunette stands sullenly on the side of the road. The air shimmers before them; the heat burns his eyes, and sweat drips down the young boy's forehead.

Kano squints his eyes to get a better view of the children. Hiyori and Hibiya. Should he remember their names, though? They'd be haunting him in his nightmares. They'd join Kido and Seto and Ayano-nee and everyone whose hearts he's trampled on.

_Claw at that bit of happiness. Take hold of it with everything you've got. _All of a sudden, Kido's voice from once upon a time (a year ago) rings in his ears and she sounds resolute (not desperate, why would she sound desperate?) and Kano should really take a leaf out of her book. He needs to follow that bastard's orders. He has to do something to protect his family – however dysfunctional, messed-up it is.

His family. It's all for his family. And it will be his last line of defense when that same family sentences him to death for his crimes.

The traffic light turns green.

Kano gives the girl a hard shove and watches as the sound of the truck's horns and the annoying cicadas blend in with the red of her blood and the traffic lights; and amidst it all the boy's cries – Kano was just like him once upon a time – tear the humid summer air apart.

He blinks once, twice, and walks away.

* * *

><p>AN: Yeah, remember what I said about updating a few times a year? For once, I'm scrapping my rules because this is a birthday present for my lovely friend and pillar of support, SeraSearaSpin. This is based (somewhat) on her latest fic, but I'm pretty sure the circumstances are a bit different at the end. You can read one without the other, but I made it so that her fic would provide some explanations for Kano's behaviors here. Anything for the birthday girl xD Please read and review her fic, because I know (and I kinda beat myself up over this fact) that reviews are writers' lifelines. Reviews can decide whether or not a story stays (at least in my case). So...once again, happy birthday, Sera!


	3. March Hare

**#3: March Hare AKA Hell is that noise**

Characters: Shintaro, Ene, Tono

Genre: Humor

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><p>Shintaro was having the worst Saturday night ever, no thanks to Ene.<p>

To start from the top, the night had been all well and good until she butted in. With a _'I'm boreeeeeeeed~_' complete with an innocent (like hell it was) smile and a wave of her hands, that level 4 emergency alarm she liked to play blared out, making him clutch his poor ears in pain.

Thank god he was home alone – Mom was taking Momo to another one of her concerts. If his mother heard the alarm (for the second time this month) she'd take away his computer. On the upside, Ene wouldn't be around to shove Slenderman pictures on his screen. On the downside, it was_ his computer. _And Ene would still be around to delete his apps and hop about in his phone causing mischief.

His sigh of relief, however, abruptly stopped when a strange thudding noise sounded behind him.

_Oh god, I knew I shouldn't have mentioned Slenderman…Y-You've gotta be kidding me! Slenderman doesn't exist, right? Wait, that thudding noise…doesn't it sound like _footsteps_?_

"Hey –"

"Aaaaaaaahh! Please don't kill me, please don't kill me!"

"Eeek! Master, what are you doing?" Wait, wasn't that voice just now… "You startled me!"

A second later, Ene pouted and floated around his screen. "Sheesh, Master, I was just joking! Though t'was pretty funny seein' ya like tha'…"

"'Joke', you say…" he grumbled. "And stop trying to talk gangster."

"Eh? But it's so fun! Don't you think I sound so cool that way?"

"No." Shintaro deadpanned.

"Pssh, spoilsport…" she pouted again – not that Shintaro cared. "Wait, where is that thudding noise coming from?"

"You…you didn't make it?" And the fear came back in full force. If Ene wasn't lying, then… Shintaro turned around and prayed to whatever god out there that it wasn't Slenderman tapping (his? its? whatever) foot impatiently being his back. He shut his eyes, not wanting to see the monster – which obviously wasn't there, there was no such thing as Slenderman…right?

"Oh, that's just Tono," Ene cheerfully informed him just as he was about to open his eyes. Shintaro relaxed and glared at the cage like it had done him wrong. "You're such a scaredy cat, Master. Lighten up."

"Yeah, yeah –" Now that he could see clearly, Shintaro's voice died in his throat at the sight of his beloved pet. "Why is Tono repeatedly banging its head on the cage bars?"

"Oh, right, I suppose it's because of that alarm thing." The cyber girl shrugged and pulled up a new tab on his computer. "Yup, Google says rabbits' ears are really sensitive. Tono kinda went nuts because of that shrill sound. I guess…Ooops?"

"_Dammit, Ene!"_

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><p>AN: IDK, this was kinda...random? Eh. This is just for fun anyway.

Thanks for reading, and remember to leave a review on your way out!


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